A land where precious little works

May 25, 2014 Features / Columnists, My Column

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On Friday there was a most interesting happening. A woman attached to Humphrey’s Bakery had gone to the bank to effect a withdrawal. She must have had transportation because she made it all the way back to the bakery. And it was there that something happened.
Two men on a motorcycle pulled up. One of them used a gun to strike the woman to her head then he grabbed the cash. In the process, a magazine from the gun fell out and was left on the road for the police to pick up when they came.
They might have escaped had it not been for the security cameras attached to the bakery. The police had a look and soon after they were at the home of the bandits to drag them off. Indeed, these men are going to appear in court and plead not guilty. The overwhelming evidence will not count.
When President Bharrat Jagdeo announced that he was going to have cameras placed around the city we all said that it was a great idea. In fact, we still do, but for some reason these cameras are not doing what was expected of them. In fact, we must wonder whether they are working. It is not known if they ever detected anything. We do know that when the police sought to use them to detect the people who shot and killed a policeman in the vicinity of Bank of Baroda they saw nothing.
They never saw the car when it drove up and they never saw the police approaching the car. Similarly, they were to be able to help the police with cars escaping out of the city. This has not happened. There have been many excuses, but none can really hold water.
For example, when I did ask about the police being able to share the images, I was told that someone, somewhere, is recording the footage from the cameras and when the need arises, the police would ask that someone for a look and then take matters from there.
I did express the hope that when the country got the e-governance cable then so many things would have fallen into place. There would have been connectivity between police stations and the main server that is recording the images. Lo and behold even that e-governance cable has serious problems.
It should have been up and running by now but it is almost a year behind schedule. Money has been spent but the service has not been provided. To make matters worse, Guyana must have started paying back by now.
I may see working cameras and the e-governance cable in my lifetime but then again, the government may decide to scrap what exists and install something new and reliable. It might be that these cameras are reliable, but the contractor who installed them must have done a job that leaves a lot to be desired.
These are not the only things in which a lot of money has been invested but for which the results are grossly unsatisfactory. I remember the Amaila Falls road which should have been completed two years ago. That road is still under construction and it is a good thing that the project collapsed. The equipment might have been here gathering dust and Guyana paying for something that it did not have. Of course we are already paying about US$17 million per annum to the Chinese for the loan we got to undertake the Skeldon Modernisation Project.
The money for these non-functioning things is coming from the public treasury which would suggest that it is coming out of the pockets of the taxpayers.  If a man were to do that with his money then he would be accused of waste and condemned to a life of penury. But governments have a way of getting away with these things.
I listened to the Finance Minister on Thursday. He was telling a forum co-hosted by the Caribbean Development Bank that there needed to be a mechanism to allow Governments to punish consultants. He said that these are the people who inspect the work by the contractors and order Governments to pay.
So there was Ashni Singh saying that these consultants must be responsible for the slipshod work that the contractors do because they are the ones to approve payments. I thought that it was a good point and my mind raced back to the cameras set up in the city.
There was never the mention of a consultant. There was also no mention of a consultant for many of the projects being pursued. There is no consultant for the Marriott project, unless he is a quiet Chinese, so who would Guyana penalize and how?
I do know that some contractors have been taken to court for failure to produce. The word the officials used was non-performance. Two of them who were awarded contracts for the e-governance cable are in the lot. We also understand that two of them who were awarded contracts on the Amaila hydropower road have also been taken to court.
No one has been taken to court for the Skeldon plant, for the many failed roads across the country—one of them is the Coldingen road—and surely, no one has been taken to court for the security cameras. But then again, many things are being done quietly, outside my hearing. Perhaps there is a confidentiality clause.

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